can be taken for granted that everyone dreams at night, whether it is remembered or not. The term "lucid dream" normally refers to a dream in which the dreamer is aware that he or she is dreaming. What needs to be done, is to take the waking mind into the dream world (DeGracia). The problem is, when dreaming, one usually does not think to wake their consciousness. In fact, one usually does not recognize the dream state: the dreamer thinks he or she is awake (Peterson). A simple exercise to help one get around that problem: "Ask in all seriousness, 'Am I dreaming?' If you ask yourself this question every fifteen minutes today, you'll probably ask the same question tonight when you're dreaming. Daytime habits often carry over into dream habits. The more often you ask, the more likely you are to catch yourself dreaming. You can set yourself a reminder, like your watch. How often do you look at a clock? Every time you look at a clock, try to figure out if you're dreaming. It won't take long, and it could be a life changing experience."From here the dream can become a "lucid dream," or wake out of the dream and have an out-of-body experience (Peterson).Becoming lucid while dreaming is indistinguishable from other ways of getting the waking mind into the dream world. Still, it would be even more convincing that the experience was a "real" astral projection/OBE if there were some way to take the consciousness directly out of the physical plane without having to use dreams as an intermediary device. Happily, there is such a direct method for getting to the inner planes. For lack of a better term, this is called the "trance method," for it entails putting oneself into a trance (DeGracia).When one is lying on his or her bed with the intent to astral project, he or she should just relax. What needs to be done at this point is to try now to put the body to sleep, but while allowing the mind to stay awake. To do this, two things are critical: conce...
